No matter where you are in your career journey, it’s clear that many employees run into similar roadblocks. “How do I have an effective conversation with my boss about the next steps in my career? Will I come across as too pushy? What if I’m told I don’t have what it takes for the role I’d like to have?” Whether you are an intern looking to move into a full-time position, an individual contributor who’d love to become a supervisor, or a mid-level manager desiring an expanded role in leadership, the process is the same.

That process starts with a key principle that Jack Canfield shares in one of his many books, The Success Principles: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be. Principle #1 states: Take 100% Responsibility for Your Life. In a nutshell, this principle is about taking ownership. It’s about recognizing and accepting that if your circumstances or experiences are not as you’d like them to be, that it’s up to you to do something about it. It means giving up on making excuses, blaming others, or listing all the reasons why you haven’t taken action in the past. Forget the past. You have from this day forward to make a different choice. As this principle relates to your career, own what you want and take responsibility for your career growth and development. No one cares more about your career than you.

Now that you’re in the driver’s seat, let’s take a look at some key tips to help you prepare for and conduct an effective career conversation.

Key Tips

Schedule an appointment with your boss. Find a good time on the calendar to schedule 30 minutes over a cup of coffee. Regardless of how much your boss has on his/her plate, they can find 30 minutes to talk with you. In your request, be sure to share what you want to discuss so they can be prepared and know what type of support you’re seeking.

Prepare for the conversation. Do your homework in advance. Find out as much as you can ahead of time about what your desired next step role requires. Take an inventory of your accomplishments, skills, and experience and match them up with what is required in the next role. Taking the initiative in this way demonstrates your professionalism and your commitment to growing your career.

Conduct the conversation. Share your goals with your boss. Discuss your thoughts on where you believe you’re ready and the gaps you need to fill. Ask for feedback. How ready does your boss see you? What specific skills and abilities will you need to develop? What opportunities exist for you to take on a special project or stretch assignment to gain those skills and abilities? Ask for what you want and be ready to commit to taking the necessary steps to get there.

Agree to next steps and schedule a follow-up meeting. Ensure that you wrap up the meeting with specific next steps to take to begin working toward your career goal. Ask for any support that you need from your boss. Draw up a specific one to two-year plan and schedule another time to meet to discuss and finalize your plan. Monitor your progress and continue to ask for feedback and guidance along the way.

Having a career conversation with your boss will help you clarify the next steps in your career and start the momentum toward achieving your goals. Remember, the ownership for your career is in your hands and reaching out to your boss for support and direction is a great beginning.

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development, Career and Retirement Coach and Facilitator who believes we each have far more potential than we typically tap in to. She helps you learn how to step into your full potential so you can create consistent, optimal performance for yourself and your team with less stress and more enjoyment. If you would like to uncover and address hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your success, leverage your strengths, and accelerate your progress toward the results you desire, contact Sherry for a complimentary consultation.

In a previous blog, (Click here to read) we looked at 5 Tips for Executing on Your New Year’s Resolutions. As you continue to work towards the results you want, you may run into some resistance. Let’s look at how your Results System™ may be running interference.

Have you ever found that no matter what you try differently, you keep ending up with the same result? Have you felt stuck at times and been without a clue on what steps to take to move forward? That’s your Results System in action!

The Results System, developed by Sydney Rice, M.Ed, illustrates a masterful internal system that allows us to effortlessly repeat tasks and apply our ways of thinking and doing things as we have always done them. It is masterful in that the system allows us to create consistency in our results without a second thought. Yet, while the system often works for us, it can also work against us when what we are striving for is change and new results in our personal and professional lives.

As you can see from the illustration below, the Results System consists of two components, one above the surface and visible – one below the surface and invisible. Ms Rice writes that we are generally aware of about 80 percent of the visible component. So, for the most part, we are pretty clear about the goals that we’ve set, based on the choices and options we feel are available to us, that lead to the tangible actions we take, and thus create our results. Below the surface of the system, we have the invisible perceptions, beliefs, habits, expectations and assumptions that we are likely to be largely unaware of. At times, without us knowing it, this invisible side of the system limits our ability to make the changes we want to make. It truly wants to keep us safe by repeating the patterns that have worked for us in the past…even though they may not be working for us now.

In order to master our Results System, we must shine the light on the invisible aspects and determine which ones are supporting our efforts to change and which must be reexamined and replaced with new beliefs, habits and assumptions that will allow us to move forward and obtain the results we desire. Making these shifts, in a conscious way, allows us to open up more choices and options that can help us take the next leap in our personal and professional growth.

Happiness is something that most of us strive for, and in fact, feel that we deserve to have. After all, our Declaration of Independence references “certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

So what does it mean to pursue happiness? When we think of pursuing something, we usually mean that we’re going after something we don’t already have. In Marci Shimoff’s book, Happy for No Reason, she points out that in Jefferson’s time, “to pursue something meant to practice that activity, to do it regularly, to make a habit of it.” There’s a huge difference between chasing after happiness and practicing happiness. When we chase after happiness, we’re coming from a perspective of lack – we don’t have the thing that we want. But when we practice happiness, we’re active participants in making ourselves even happier.

So how can we practice happiness at work and at home? The first key is to know that you can weather your moods. Like the weather, your moods are always changing. Recognizing and accepting your moods and knowing that they will change is important to “being happiness.”

If you realize this, when you are up, you can fully appreciate the moments of pure pleasure. Instead of being disappointed when your great mood doesn’t last, you know that not only won’t it last, but it is not supposed to, and so, you can appreciate it while it does.

When you are down, you also know that it won’t last, and because of that, you can weather the low. If you are really down, know that your natural balance will soon bring you up. From a very high level perspective, you can now appreciate the downs, for you’ll know that each of life’s experiences are opportunities to appreciate the gifts that life brings us.

So next time you have a great day – or a “bad” one – appreciate it for what it is, know that it won’t last, and know that that perspective will put you well on your way to pursuing happiness.

How often do you find yourself overwhelmed with the “to-dos” on your list? How many of those items actually fall into the category of energy draining activities? Perhaps they are important tasks, activities and projects needed to run your business, yet they involve work that you’re just not good at or interested in, and you don’t really want to do.

Welcome to a common circumstance experienced by entrepreneurs. If this rings true for you, you may believe you have to do everything that needs to be done in your business. This belief may have been born from a variety of circumstances. Perhaps you’re afraid to spend the money to hire someone to help because you’re concerned about whether you can actually afford it. Maybe you believe that, as an entrepreneur, you “should” be able to do it all.

In the end, it doesn’t really matter where the belief came from. Instead, it’s important to acknowledge that doing it all isn’t supporting you in reaching your desired results. To release the feeling of overwhelm and get your focus back on what you do best…Build an Anabolic Team. What exactly do we mean by that?

There are two primary types of energy – anabolic and catabolic. Anabolic energy is building, constructive, positive energy. Catabolic energy, on the other hand, is destructive, negative energy. So, when you think of those activities that drain you and bring about overwhelm, you are experiencing catabolic energy. Conversely, when you are focused on the work, activities and tasks that you love and you feel “in the flow”, you are experiencing anabolic energy.

One of our teachers, Callan Rush, has passed along a quote that states, “If it’s not my genius, it’s not my job”. Well said! If you can install that belief into your thinking, it will support you in following the steps below to create your anabolic team.

Consider the following questions:

What do you do well?

What could you use more help or support with?

Identify the key types of people you would want to team up with.

Who exactly are these people?

How will you connect with them?

What’s the first step you will commit to take to build your anabolic team?

Following these steps will put you on the path of creating a powerful team that allows you to focus on what you do best and love to do. Additionally, as you build your team, you are inviting others to tap into what they do best as well. And, that’s a winning combination.